Free Manuscript Downloads from the Walters Art Museum

          The Walters Art Museum, in Baltimore, Maryland, is famous for its world-class art exhibits, but its manuscript collections are also of considerable significance.   In 2004, a catalogue of the Walters Art Museum’s Greek manuscripts was prepared by Georgi R. Parpulov.  Among the 19 Greek manuscripts in the collection are six copies of the four Gospels, two copies of Acts and the Epistles, and two Gospels-lectionaries, along with some fragments.    

          Most of these manuscripts can be viewed page-by-page at the Walters Art Museum’s website.  If that had been the only contribution that the Walters Art Museum had made to the field of New Testament textual criticism, it would be sufficient to deserve high praise.  But there is more:  each of the following manuscripts can be downloaded for free as a PDF:  

W. 520, a lectionary
written in Greek uncial script.

        

Walters 520 (GA Lect 1629):  Gospels lectionary, 900’s.  PDF of W. 520.

Walters 521:  The Imperial Menologion.  PDF of W. 521.         

Walters 522 (GA 2370):  Gospels, 1000’s/1100’s.  PDF of W. 522.             

Walters 523 (GA 2369):  Gospels, 900’s (with replacement-pages).  PDF of W. 523.

Walters 524 (GA 2373):  Gospels, 900’s.  PDF of W. 524.           

Walters 525 (GA 2374):  Gospels, Acts, and Epistles, c. 1300.  PDF of W. 525.            

Walters 528 (GA 2372):  Gospels, early 1200’s.  PDF of W. 528.            

Walters 531 (GA 2375):  Gospels, c. 1150.  The Trebizond Gospels.  PDF of W. 531. 

Walters 533 (GA 1022):  Acts and Epistles, early 1100’s.  PDF of W. 533.          

Walters 535 (GA Lect 1029):  late (1594) lectionary copied by Luke the Cypriot, with many illustrations.  PDF of W. 535.

            

          Details about the contents and special features of these manuscripts can be found in the catalogue prepared by Georgi R. Parpulov.  Many more manuscripts – including the Reichenau Gospels, the Freising Gospels, and the Claricia Psalter – are at the Walters Art Museum’s website; I have not mentioned many other exquisite manuscripts, so as to encourage readers to visit the website directly and enjoy exploring it for themselves.  

W. 47 features a large illustration
of the assassination
of Thomas Becket.

          Some other Greek manuscripts are too fragile to digitize at present; these include Walters 532 (GA 1346, a Gospels manuscript from c. 1100) and Walters 529 (GA 647 and 2371), the latter of which is formatted similarly to GA 1175.  Among the fragments which consist of only one or two images, are Walters 530A (a miniature of Mark), Walters 530C (GA 2191) (with text from John 21).  Walters 526 (GA 1531, from the late 1200’s) and Walters 527 (GA 2368) are more substantial, but full digital views of these Gospels-copies are not yet available:             

          An abundance of versional manuscripts resides in the Walters Art Museum’s collection, including Walters 537, the oldest substantial Armenian Gospels-manuscript in North America.  (PDF of Walters 537.)  Other interesting non-Greek manuscripts include the following:

Walters 836, an Ethiopic Gospels from the 1300’s.  PDF of Walters 836.   

Walters 751, the Corvey Gospel Fragment (Latin, 950-975). 

Walters 592, an illustrated Arabic Gospels made in 1684.  PDF of W. 592.   

Walters 739, a Coptic fragment of Exodus (with text from chapters 21 & 23).

Walters 47, the Psalter-Hours of Brother Guimier (Latin, late 1200’s).

          Congratulations and thanks are extended to the staff of, and donors to, the Walters Art Museum for making these tremendous resources available!